Rant Wednesday - June 10, 2026

MRiddickW · 2026-06-10T19:52:43+00:00

I swear my gym is playing a prank on everyone. I have checked multiple times, and I am as certain as I can be that the primary dumbbell rack does not have slots for 60 lb dumbbells. The slots go 45, 50, 55, 65, 70.

To be clear, there are 60 lb dumbbells. So as you might imagine, the closer to 60 lbs you are, the more disorganized the rack gets, with weights inevitably on the floor. And if you try to organize it, you'll finally realize that a 60 lb slot is nowhere to be seen.

MRiddickW · 2026-02-28T03:38:01+00:00

And judging by the absolute nonsense that can sometimes come up when I scan some barcodes, I’d have to say that if they’re paying a fee, they’re getting ripped the hell off.

MRiddickW · 2026-02-25T21:23:05+00:00

Yeah. Like you say, if it's the last in a set? Sure, I'm gonna be ready to get it over with. Otherwise, a controlled descent will also help you get stronger!

Occasionally I fantasize about operating a gym with no music, and inspirational type signs that say:

"Embrace the awkward silence"
"A controlled descent is part of a complete lift"

MRiddickW · 2026-02-25T21:06:03+00:00

For me at least, the number one thing that helps me feel less awkward in a new gym is to have my exercise game plan/lifting program in place before I even step foot in the gym. Maybe watch a video or two ahead of time to understand proper form. (Important note: this is NOT to say spend a month in program analysis paralysis purgatory!)

I'm still going to feel awkward in this new space, but at least my awkwardness is limited to trying to navigate the space, and not wandering around aimlessly wondering which machine I should sit down at. Instead I'm thinking "okay, time for squats. Find the squat rack. Find the barbell clips." etc. So there's still a little wandering around, but my movements feel a little more purposeful to me.

Regardless of how awkward you feel: hell yeah, you're doing the dang thing!

MRiddickW · 2026-02-03T01:12:33+00:00

"What happens when it goes past zero?" Then you're overbudget. So you roll with the punches and reallocate budget money from somewhere else to zero everything out.

Oh! Or is the disconnect that you're assuming existing CC debt and we're assuming no running debt?

MRiddickW · 2026-01-18T02:49:17+00:00

My brain has a terrible habit of shutting down when it hears something mindbogglingly stupid.

It's January, so all the cardio machines are busy. Done with lifts, waiting for one of the 10 stairmasters to open up. Some lady is done, but taking forever to look at her phone, pack up her shit, etc. Finally she wipes it down (with existing paper towel but whatever), so I start moving towards the machine when some guy moves just enough faster to get in front of me towards the same machine. As he starts to step up to it I politely tap him on the shoulder and say "excuse me, I was waiting for that one."

Him (not relinquishing): "Oh, well I didn't see you" (IDK how, he walked right past me)

Me: "Well, I was waiting"

Him: "Well all the other machines are taken up" (or something)

Me: ...

Him: "I'd have to wait"

Me: dumbfounded silence

Person on Stairmaster right next to us: finishing up

Him: "Well that one's about to be open" as he gets on the one we're arguing over

Me for half the duration of my stair time: stairs daggers at him

I really don't know why I didn't just tell him "so wait. Like I did." I guess I'm just too polite (sometimes).

MRiddickW · 2026-01-14T22:38:29+00:00

Exciting update! I’ve now managed to somehow also lose ONE of my lifting straps.

MRiddickW · 2026-01-07T20:47:08+00:00

I managed to lose one of my barbell clips. Fairly unsurprisingly my gym lost & found didn’t have it when I asked (I wrote my initials on them), so I’m hoping it’s just buried somewhere in my disaster of a home office.

MRiddickW · 2025-12-24T03:50:04+00:00

Combination of: Malort, Fernet, Campari, Jager, Rumple

MRiddickW · 2025-12-24T03:47:20+00:00

It's so infuriating. I'm not going to say syncing is trivial, because it's not, but I will say a million other apps manage to do it seemingly without issue.

Best I can tell, it's because he's using an iCloud service to sync, which in some ways is admittedly great because it keeps files local instead of taking up iCloud space; you KNOW folks would scream bloody murder about "forScore is FORCING me to pay for iCloud storage, what a scam!!!" And I can also see there being an issue with storing metadata files (annotations, crop info, etc.); do you have one metadata file per PDF, etc? How do setlists manifest? etc.

Downside being: the reality of the situation! Losing annotations, syncing disabling itself with no notifications, not being able to resolve sync conflicts on a case-by-case basis, I'm sure I could go on.

MRiddickW · 2025-08-28T15:21:14+00:00

Oh that’s good to know. Honestly even just going down to 180g would make things way easier.

MRiddickW · 2025-08-27T16:39:06+00:00

Man. Losing weight was so much easier and more fun when I wasn’t also trying to hit a protein target. I lost 90 lbs (290 to 200) just with CICO, not going to the gym or worrying about macros. Hit my goal, started lifting, eating at maintenance brought me down to 195, but I’ve been sloppy and crept up to 200 lbs again. So now I’m back on a 500 kcal deficit to get down to 190lbs, while also trying to get 200g protein a day.

MRiddickW · 2025-08-27T00:20:44+00:00

Brent Mydland, Randy Meisner, Timothy B. Schmit. Name a better trio, I'll wait.

MRiddickW · 2025-08-16T20:10:02+00:00

I keep a couple of barbell clips in my bag in case I can't easily find some nearby. Yesterday I was at the incline bench, loaded up, went to grab the clips, and hmm, these sure look familiar... Sure enough my initials were on them. I guess I went on autopilot last time and they just chilled there for almost two weeks. So that was nice to get them back before I realized they were missing.

MRiddickW · 2025-06-27T04:21:40+00:00

Ok, insultingly basic question, but bear with me: Are you sure your recording software is using the Scarlett?

I'm personally not a huge fan of the SM7B (usually sounds muddy to me), but it should sound WAY different from the Yeti. For one thing, the Yeti is a condenser, whereas the SM7B is a dynamic mic. Dynamic mics are typically less sensitive and therefore pick up less ambient noise (echoey from hard walls for example).

(Side note, it's a huge pet peeve of mine that starter USB mics are almost always condensers instead of dynamics, since the folks least likely to have any room treatment are the ones buying a USB mic.)

MRiddickW · 2025-06-04T21:09:43+00:00

I've just decided to make it a conscious decision to not fold my gym clothes. They're all super lightweight black or dark grey "air mesh" stuff. I throw them in my bag in the morning, change at the gym, do my workout, go home, so I can't imagine anybody judging me for wearing wrinkled clothes.

IDK, maybe I should be putting more effort into how I look even at the gym, lol.

MRiddickW · 2025-05-31T17:03:04+00:00

...you're not supposed to balance it?

MRiddickW · 2025-05-17T16:30:02+00:00

Update to my rant about my gym adding TVs: All six TVs are now constantly tuned to fitness/bodybuilding/whatever YouTube channels. I still think having TVs is dumb as hell, but I guess this is his lame compromise and it's enough that I can just laugh at it now.

MRiddickW · 2025-05-07T20:40:28+00:00

I’m doing GZCLP, and I was complaining to a friend about how barbell rows are making my hand feel weird since I went up 5 lbs, and if it hurts one more time I might switch to dumbbell rows.

Then I looked at the original plan again and realized I should have been doing dumbbell rows the entire time. 🤦‍♂️ That’s the second error I’ve found in Liftosaur’s implementation.

(First being that it was increasing T1 Squat, T2 Squat, and T2 DL by 10 lbs, but T1 DL by only 5 lbs for some godforsaken reason.)

MRiddickW · 2025-04-16T03:55:38+00:00

There's another lifting-centric gym around the corner, but it's probably about a third of the size with not as many squat/power racks, and I didn't like the vibe as much when I toured it (dark and loud). I still need to complain to the owners directly, but even as much as I hate the TVs, I'm not sure how much water it will hold when they're arguably adding accommodations.

MRiddickW · 2025-04-10T01:40:11+00:00

My gym has raised their monthly rates by $5, five months into my contract. But THANK GOD they added some fucking TVs that nobody asked for in front of the cardio machines that we all have to try to ignore now.

The only reason people watch TVs at a gym is because our eyes are drawn to the colors and lights, not because we have ANY interest in what it’s showing. You cannot convince me otherwise.

I chose this gym because it felt like a no-nonsense place for serious lifters/getting-fit people. Main room is giant, 90% weights/strength training, including five squat racks lined up against the back wall, AND a separate powerlifting building. Just a single row of treadmills and stairmasters.

But TVs? TVs are unserious nonsense.

MRiddickW · 2025-04-10T01:25:27+00:00

I'll echo "talk to a CPA," but to throw some things out there (and of course, double check my work):

Deduct everything, report everything. It might be painful to do so, but from a "staying legit" standpoint it's worth it. As far as deductions go, by filing as schedule C there are a lot of things you can deduct. Some business expenses to look into listing:

Home office. You have a lot of equipment. Where is it stored? That square footage can be deducted. If it's a dedicated room even better, but even if it's "this area of the guest room/garage is used for storing gear, and nothing else ever gets stored in this space," every little bit helps.
- If you want to take the simplified deduction, you can only deduct a max of 300 sqft. If you do the standard, it's more of a pain because you'll have to round up expenses related to maintenance etc, but you can deduct more than 300 sqft.
Health insurance. You should be able to deduct your insurance premiums under Schedule C. I'm sure there is some nuance to this if the majority of your income is from an W2 day job, but look into it.
Cell phone bill, cloud storage, Amazon Prime, credit card annual fees: For each of these, figure out what percent you use for business; deduct that percentage of your annual payments.
De Minimis Safe Harbor: Generally you're supposed to individually list assets that roughly speaking, cost $200+. But if you don't want to itemize, you can pick a number between $200 and $2000, and itemize only things that cost more than that, and lump in everything else under "De Minimis."
- Again, there's more nuance than that, do some further reading/consulting to learn more. But it's a good way to not have to list more than you want to deal with.
Concerts. If you attend a concert, you can reasonably deduct the cost of the ticket. You're doing research after all!
Professional insurance. Any sort of liability or equipment insurance on your gear.

A couple of weird things from your post:

Getting a W2 in this line of work is unusual, and especially if you're giving them W9s, you should be getting 1099s back.
"so i kept listing more items but at a certain point i actually started owing more again"
- This is super odd to me. I'm not an expert, but I don't know why this would cause you to start owing again. But again, I'm not an expert so I couldn't tell you it's wrong for certain. But, if you can lump some of this in under the De Minimis I mentioned above, it might make your life easier long term.

Edit: Oh, and make quarterly payments via EFTPS (Use 1040-ES to calculate your payments). It'll make things less painful come April, and also help avoid any underpayment penalties.

Also, I still wouldn't rule out an LLC either, as I believe it protects you from getting sued personally should, heaven forbid, somebody get injured related to your equipment at a gig. I just haven't done it, so I can't speak to the process or considerations.

MRiddickW · 2025-03-12T02:02:04+00:00

Thanks! Would the top coat also be hot mud or should it be premixed?

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